Comparison of theory and experiments on van der Waals forces in media - A survey

Friedrich Anton Burger*, Robert William Corkery, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann, Johannes Fiedler

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

    9 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    We present a critical overview comparing theoretical predictions and measurements of van der Waals dispersion forces in media on the basis of the respective Hamaker constants. To quantify the agreement, we complement the reported experimental errors with those for the theoretical predictions, which are because of the uncertainties in the underlying spectroscopic data. Our main finding is that the theoretical errors are often larger than their experimental counterparts. Within these uncertainties, the comparison confirms the standard Lifshitz theory based on the Abraham electromagnetic stress tensor against the recently suggested alternative account on the basis of the Maxwell stress tensor.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)24179-24186
    Number of pages8
    JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry C
    Volume124
    Issue number44
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 5 Nov 2020

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